In my nursing program you earned your CNA after one quarter, your LPN after 4 quarters, and your ADN-RN after 7 quarters. I took the LPN NCLEX for the fun of it, but never worked as an LPN, as I already had a job as a monitor tech on the floor I wanted to work.

I started an RN to BSN program while in the army, so I could make major someday, but it was such a time and money suck, that once I decided I wasn’t going to stay in the army for 20 years, there was no good reason for me to stay in the program, so I left.

I completed my BSN two years ago after having been an AD-RN for 16 years because the hospital I work for strongly encouraged it. Fortunately they have a generous tuition reimbursement program so all I had to do was suck it up and get the work done, lol.

My advice to any RN who doesn’t already have their BSN is to get into a bridge program and get it over with. These days a lack of a BS can severely limit your job opportunities, depending on what area of the country you live in. Here in NYC there isn’t a single hospital I can think of that doesn’t require a minimum of a BSN as entry level.

I started out as an LPN in ‘91, moved to the west coast and became an LVN in ‘96, and then bridged over to RN/ADN in ’06.

I was non-plussed with the BSN programs in my area, and jumped at the chance to go from RN to MSN when a program started up close to where I live. I am now in the MSN/CNL program. I will spend the first 12 units of my MSN program (including the 90 community hours) to make up for the BSN education. What a total waste of time it would have been if I would have earned my BSN first! I would have needed 36 units to get a BSN and I would have only gotten credit for 12 of them!!!!! As it is, I will only take 46 units to go from RN to MSN/CNL/PHN.

When I am done with this 18 month MSN/CNL program, I will only be 20 units away from being able to graduate from an NP program. Since the CNL role is clinical and not desk based, the program include the “Big Three”: Advanced Pharm, Advanced Patho, and Advanced Physiology courses. (Make sure you take a program that separates each of the three into their own course – the NP programs frown on combined Pharm/Patho/Assessment courses).

In summary, I would highly recommend for my ADN peers to skip the BSN route completely and enroll in an RN to MSN program if at all possible. I have no other college education beyond the LPN/LVN and my ADN. You really should look into it if you’ve got tuition reimbursement from your employer.